System and method for providing feedback during manual joint positioning

A method of operating a computer-assisted device comprising a joint, the method comprising:

• determining a velocity of the joint relative to a target position for the joint;
• providing, by a control unit, first haptic feedback indicating that the joint is moving in a correct direction when the velocity indicates that the joint is moving toward the target position;
• providing, by the control unit, second haptic feedback indicating that the joint is not moving in the correct direction when the velocity indicates that the joint is moving away from the target position;
• and
• providing, by the control unit, third haptic feedback indicating that motion of the joint should stop when the joint is at the target position.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors associated with a computer-assisted medical device are adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

• determining a velocity of a joint relative to a target position for the joint;
• providing first haptic indicating that the joint is moving in a correct direction when the velocity indicates that the joint is moving toward the target position;
• providing second haptic feedback indicating that the joint is not moving in the correct direction when the velocity indicates that the joint is moving away from the target position;
• and
• providing third haptic feedback indicating that motion of the joint should stop when the joint is at the target position.